Masons at the Crossroads

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Even if Ann Arbor's Masons never build another temple, the fraternity is about more than bricks and mortar, or secret oaths and handshakes. It's about enduring personal connections-sometimes initiated by family, but ultimately strengthened by the special friendships made in a lodge. Tom Hathaway, a thirty-three-year-old medical student, says he was introduced to Freemasonry at his grandfather's funeral. He found the Masonic ceremony more moving than the Episcopal liturgy and subsequently joined Fraternity No. 262. Busy today with studies, his family, and his church, he finds time for the group, he says, because "the people I meet in Masonry inspire me to be a better person."